Investigators looking at previous break-in, threat

By Mitchell Byars, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
04/01/2014 09:36:54 AM MDT

Updated:
04/02/2014 12:34:12 AM MDT

Boulder County sheriff's deputies are seen walking down the driveway of the Snowpeak Lane home where Zachary Meints was stabbed in the back Monday. His assailant remains at large. (Matthew Jonas / Longmont Times-Call)

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office is continuing to investigate the stabbing of sex offender Zachary Meints outside his home Monday afternoon, but investigators do not have any suspects at this time.

Meints, 26, a former Boulder youth hockey coach who admitted to sending thousands of sexual texts and Facebook messages to children younger than 15, was stabbed twice in the back Monday by a masked assailant outside his home at 679 Snowpeak Lane in unincorporated Boulder County, officials said.

With no suspects at this point, Sheriff Joe Pelle said investigators are processing evidence and trying to find witnesses, though at this time there do not appear to be any.

"It's a difficult case, to be straightforward," Pelle said.

Meints told investigators he was getting out of his car at 2:30 p.m. Monday when someone came up from behind him and stabbed him in the back before fleeing on foot.

Sheriff's officials said Meints was transported to Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette. When contacted later in the day Monday, hospital officials said he was not listed as a patient, and both Pelle and sheriff's Cmdr. Heidi Prentup said Tuesday they did not have any information on Meints' condition.

Sheriff's deputies led a search across the neighborhoods surrounding Snowpeak Lane, off Baseline Road west of Lafayette, but were unable to locate the black-clad suspect.

Investigators located a knife Monday, but Prentup said they're not yet sure whether it was the weapon used in the stabbing.

Prentup confirmed Meints had been the target of a recent threat and that his house — where he lives with his parents — was burglarized recently, but said investigators are still trying to determine if either of those incidents is connected to the stabbing.

"We are looking into both of those things," Prentup said.

As for Meints' past criminal history, Pelle said that while his sex offense case could play a role in where the investigation goes, his status as a sex offender will not affect how he is treated.

"(The case) could play a role in what happened and who we look at as potential suspects, what motives there are and all those things, but it won't have an impact on our treatment of (Meints) as a victim," Pelle said. "His status as an offender doesn't make any difference in regards to his status as a victim."

Meints, who was fired from his coaching position with the Rocky Mountain RoughRiders 15-and-under hockey team after an investigation was opened in September 2011, pleaded guilty in May 2012 to one count of Internet sexual exploitation.

He was sentenced in 2012 to 10 years of sex offender intensive supervised probation, which includes close monitoring of his personal relationships and regular polygraph tests to ensure he is not acting in a hypersexual way.

He is required to register as a sex offender for 10 years beyond when his probation is completed.

The Boulder County District Attorney's Office said an investigation uncovered extensive sexual communication Meints had over two years with youth members of the Boulder Hockey Club while he was a coach there.

Deputy District Attorney Tim Johnson — who was a prosecutor on the case — said there have been no complaints filed against Meints by the probation department.

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